Tuke never lost his passion and
urgency for the project. At one
point he travelled to St Luke’s
Hospital, hoping to increase his
knowledge on the treatment of
the insane. The patients here
were in a state of such misery and hopelessness that it
shocked him deeply, especially
the case of one woman who
was chained naked to a wall
and left there with only dirty
straw as a bed. Although he
had so far faced some problems in his project this experience left him in no doubt that
it had to succeed. Eventually
Tuke had amassed the requisite
money to commence building Original Building of The Retreat,York(1797)
The Retreat.
capacity. It is likely that from the
outside people viewed The Retreat
as some strange religious project
rather than a serious attempt at
curing the insane. After all, no-one
had ever seen or heard of anything
like it. Tuke found that many people derided it at first, even making
fun of it and distancing themselves
from him. There were no chains or
manacles and patients were free to
walk the grounds. Physica